Wang Chongrong

Wang Chongrong (王重榮) (died July 6, 887), formally the Prince of Langye (瑯琊王), was a warlord of the late Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty who controlled Hezhong Circuit (河中, headquartered in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi). He was instrumental in Tang's eventual defeat of the agrarian rebel Huang Chao, but at times had an adversarial relationship with the court of Emperor Xizong and the powerful eunuch Tian Lingzi.

It is not known when Wang Chongrong was born, and the official histories differ as to where his family was from — according to the Old Book of Tang, Hezhong Municipality (河中, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), and according to the New Book of Tang, Taiyuan Municipality. His father Wang Zong (王縱) was a successful military officer who reached the position of prefect of Yan Prefecture (鹽州, in modern Yulin, Shaanxi). Because of his father's contributions, both Wang Chongrong and his older brother Wang Chongying served in the military as well, and both were known for their fierce fighting ability. Wang Chongrong had at least one other older brother, Wang Chongjian (王重簡).

In 880, Wang Chongrong, who was then serving as a commander of the infantry at Hezhong Circuit, came to control Hezhong Circuit — but how he did so was disputed among the main traditional historical sources. According to the Old Book of Tang, when the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao captured the Tang imperial capital Chang'an, establishing his own state of Qi as its emperor and forcing the then-reigning Tang Emperor Xizong to flee to Chengdu, the military governor of Hezhong, Li Du (李都), believing that he could not resist Huang, submitted to Huang, and was allowed to remain at Hezhong, while Wang was commissioned deputy military governor by Huang. Wang, however, objected to the numerous demands for material supplies from Huang, and forced Li Du to yield power to him; Wang then claimed the position of acting military governor, killed the Qi emissaries, and sent Li Du on his way to Chengdu to pay homage to Emperor Xizong. The New Book of Tang gave a largely similar account, but further indicated that Emperor Xizong then sent the official Dou Jue (竇潏) to replace Li Du, and Wang forced Dou to return to Emperor Xizong and seized control of the circuit. The Zizhi Tongjian indicated that Wang had started a disturbance before Huang captured Chang'an, forcing Emperor Xizong to recall Li Du and commission him as acting military governor; that Wang subsequently submitted to Huang but then relented when faced with numerous material demands from Huang and returned to the Tang fold.

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